Lay Preachers

Emperor William's taste for preechng, even where there is a duty qualiied ecclesiastic within reach, is far more common fancy than most people might be willing to imagine. Under the circumstances it is difficult to underetand the surprise which has been caused by his insistence in delivering the Sunda3r discourse during the recent jachting trip in the Mediterranean, alhough he had on board witih him the chief of the court chaplains. Thus in England there are at .least a dozen secular members of the house Í lords who, not content with preaching X' their own households and tenante, actually travel about in England and on :he continent preaching wherever they een find either a congregation or a puiit at their disposal. Several of them, such as, for instance, jord liadstock, haveincurred the wrath of foreign governments in consequence of 1beir religious zeal. The young' Earl Beau cha top is an-. other of these lay preachers, but he conines his ministrations to the Ea-st end of London. Then there is Lord Bonnet, married to an American wife and heir to the earl of TankerviJle, who has been arrestèd for street preaching on severel occasions. The present, duke of Haisilton does a ittle in the preaching1 line, chiefly eimong the poorer classes of London. But none of these peers come anywhere r.ear the late earl of Shaftesbury so far 'is pulpit oratory is concerned, the ear! being known by the nickname of "tbe lay bishop."